


Same Old Patterns

by orphan_account



Category: Game of Thrones RPF
Genre: Angst and Romance, Complicated Relationships, Dogs, F/M, Feelings, Paparazzi, Possibly Unrequited Love, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:14:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24753022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Kit returns to London with a new look and reunites with Emilia.
Relationships: Emilia Clarke/Kit Harington
Comments: 11
Kudos: 65





	Same Old Patterns

**Author's Note:**

> Had to write something for Kit’s haircut. Still am processing it. Probably won’t write another but who knows. Hope you like this.

“I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh yeah?” Emilia cocked her head, trapping her phone between her cheek and shoulder. She was busy wrestling Teddy’s harness off of him now that they were home from their morning walk, hardly listening. She thought she heard something about a “haircut” but wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like that was much of a surprise. Chopping off all his luscious curls the day filming ended, that had been a surprise. Shaving off his entire face and leaving behind a weird 70s pornstache, that had been a surprise.

Just a plain old haircut was not a surprise, but maybe all the quarantine had gotten to his head. It certainly had gotten to hers. She was going stir crazy, she needed to be out doing things, not trapped in her study with endless Zoom meetings, whether they be for work or to hang out with friends instead of going to the pub. 

Of course, she had been quarantining with her best friend, even if that had gone tits up when she finally told Gommie to stop recording his videos in her house and then complaining about all the weird asks he was getting on Intagram. “Either answer them and acknowledge our friendship openly or stop all together and find somewhere else to film your spoken word poems!” she had angrily shouted at him one morning when she had had just enough of his complaining. He couldn’t have it both ways, she’d told him, and he had gotten offended and found alternative lodging. 

They were slowly making up from the fight, as they had been friends since grade school, but that didn’t mean she had to forgive him entirely for subtlety trading their friendship for his newfound artistic fame. He had gotten quite popular during quarantine and she attributed it almost exclusively to him staying with her. 

She hung Ted’s leash and harness up on the peg beside her door, along with the tan baseball cap that belonged to one best friend and the propeller hat that was Gommie’s. “A haircut?” she echoed, when he asked if she was even bothering to listen to him. She snorted. “Kit that is not a surprise.”

“I think it will be. Are you home now?”

“Yeah, just finished my pap walk.”

“I thought you hated those.”

She scoffed; yes, she did hate pap walks, but it seemed to come with the territory of trying to keep her name relevant. “Necessary evil” was what her publicist always told her. “Just get a few pics back and forth down the street with Teddy, they’ll eat it all up. You want to make sure they still remember you, if you want to get your other projects traction.” It was a mystery who “they” were, but Emilia did it. She would prefer they follow her when she requested, when she could be prepared. Not when she was trying to actually keep a low profile.

“Well what about you? You didn’t want Jason to post a picture of you on his Instagram, but you will gladly go walking about.” She was tired, cranky even, and he had called at the worst time. She almost tripped over Ted, trying to get into the kitchen, growling when he yipped at her, like itw as her fault, not his for standing right in the middle of the doorway. She felt particularly nasty, reaching up into her cupboard for a box of paracetamol, to stave off the pending headache in the back of her neck. “Or do you only do those because the contract says you have to?”

He had been in a rather joking, amusing mood when he called her, back from Suffolk and in London, but after her snappy comment everything went quiet. He cleared his throat, coolly replying: “You told me they were a necessary evil, that is what they are to me too.”

She closed her eyes and pinched her nose. “I am sorry Kit.”

“It’s been a long few months.”

“Yeah well, you got to be in your nice country house.” 

“With her.”

Sometimes she felt bad for him and other times she just rolled her eyes. He got into that relationship; he could easily get himself out. He just wasn’t mentally there yet. For all her faults, Rose did love him, even if she wielded that love like a weapon. She blew out a hard breath, closing her eyes and sinking against the counter. “That was your choice,” she reminded him. He could have easily stayed in London. With me, she thought, stomach flipping. It would not have been easy, but it could have been something.

He sighed, now itw as his turn to seem sorry. “I know…sometimes it was good. Reminded me of how it was in the beginning.”

A prickling in her spine began to spider out to her limbs. She closed her eyes tighter. “Kit,” she warned. There was only so much she could take, hearing him talk about his relationship with the other woman. They were “best friends” to the media, but in reality it was more like a consistent threesome, except where two of the three smiled and were nice for everyone so people couldn’t see them tearing the third into two, trying to get their fill.

And the third was so confused about his feelings and his emotions he never knew which one he should be with, so desperate for affection and someone to prop him up. It was something she rarely did, which was probably why he’d run to Suffolk with the wife instead of staying in London with her. “I’m sorry,” he apologized.

“It’s okay.”

Another sigh. “I have to do a pap walk tomorrow. Then everyone can see my haircut.”

“I’m getting a little scared you know.”

“She’s still in Suffolk, I decided to come back wth the pup.”

She squealed, suddenly happy. “Yes! I want to see her! Playdate with Teddy!”

“And a pap walk?” he snarked.

“Can you imagine?”

“She’d never allow it. Too much talk. I already slipped twice already talking about you.”

“Oh yes, that livestream thing you did, I was wondering when you would be punished.” 

“That’s kind of what this is about. She got me a bigger ring, can be seen from space.”

“If you’re home, you know you can pop by?” She tried not to sound too much like a secondary school girl, twirling her hair around her finger in the hopes that her crush would pop over to borrow a book and maybe they could go up to her room for a snog session. Except that was exactly what she wash oping. She’d been lonely without Gommie, she wanted someone to talk to that wasn’t on the other side of a computer screen.

After a few seconds, where he was clearly mulling it over, she heard his resigned sigh. “Alright. I’ll bring over the pup.”

“I can see this surprise haircut.”

He chortled. “I don’t know how you are going to feel about it, you did like the curls.”

“Just don’t let your abs go to pot.”

“Oh believe me, that won’t happen, what do you think I was doing all those days in that house? It was work out or talk to her. I did that enough when we went on walks or to the village to keep the people happy on the tweet thing.”

“Twitter, you geriatric.”

“Whatever.”

///

Ted barked happily when the backdoor rattled, a heavy knock breaking through the quiet. Emilia shushed him, but if she could bark like him, she probably would. Her heart was in her throat and her stomach tied in knots. She ahd rather stupidly gone upstairs and changed out of her athleisure clothing into something a bit less comfortable and probably al ittle more sexy, even though the entire time she was chiding herself for being so silly. 

They had talked at length during the last few months, via Zoom or Facetime or just texts and old-fashioned calls. She had even sent him a few letters, thanking him for donating to her SameYou fundraisers and joking that he should have joined her brunch call, that would have certainly sent everyone’s tongues wagging. 

Except they had not been well, “that way” since December, when he came to her and said that he and Rose were on the best terms they had been in for some time, since he had gotten out of rehab and he wanted to see where it would go. “I need to do this for me,” he had told her tearfully, arms wrapped tight around her. “Just to see if I can do it you know?”

It was for his sanity, his fragile emotional health that hse agreed. She wasn’t sure what this visit was going to be, but she had just put on a pair of jeans and a clean jumper, maybe did her hair a little and put on a pair of earrings. “Coming!” she called, picking up Ted so he didn’t attack poor Dany. A name Kit had thought hilarious, justifying that the rescued greyhound had come out of a horrible circumstance into something better, just like Daenerys. She still wondered what Rose thought of the name.

She swung the door open, Ted wiggling in her armpit, and Dany immediately jumping back, skittish at the dachshund’s high-pitched barks. “Hang on, hang on, hang on,” she sang, bouncing on her toes. She lifted her head up from reaching a hand to Dany, squealing. “She is so sweet!”

“I know, she’s really cute.”

Emilia tossed her hair out of her eyes and stared, a frozen look of horror and curiosity pulling on her face. Her smile twisted and her eyes were wide. “Jesus Christ,” she blurted, before she even could think.

He grinned, like a stupid fool and lifted the hand that wasn’t holding Dany’s leash to scrub over his head. “You like it? Surprise!”

“What did you fucking do?”

“I buzzed it. Can I come in? Your neighbor was looking over at me weirdly when I just came in the back gate.” He stepped over her threshold, rather at ease with being in her house, leaning to unclip Dany’s harness, which was put on over her coat. She was shivering, poor thing, looking around the new house while also jumping sideways away from Ted, who was rudely shoving his nose up under her back legs. He scratched Ted’s ears. “Hey, down boy.”

That was all they needed was for their dogs to have puppies. Ted would need stilts though. She kept staring at him, as he went to her refrigerator, removing a bottle of juice. He cracked the cap, taking a few sips, and gazed around the messy space, shaking his head slightly. “What is with all the cookbooks? You turning into that Ina lady?”

“Maybe.” She reached up, idly touching at his head. It was oddly cool. She stretched her hand over his entire skull, shivering. “Oh my God Kit. I can feel all your bones!” 

He smirked. “I thought it was different.”

“But why!”

“I was sick of the hair. Didn’t want to let it grow out again, so I just shaved it all off.” He scrubbed his hand over it again, grinning rather darkly. “Rose hates it.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well you were the pretty one in the relationship.”

He narrowed his eyes, whispering. “That wasn’t nice.”

“No, it wasn’t, but maybe I’m not feeling very nice with respect to your beloved.”

“What the fuck Emilia?” Now they were fighting. That didn’t take long. He was barely five minutes in her house. They hadn’t seen each other in months, they should be hugging and excited to see each other, but here she was, pissed that he thought this was a cute little surprise when he looked like he was about to go join the Queen’s forces and thought he could just show up like everything was how it used to be.

Maybe being a few months locked in their homes had taught her something. 

Or it was all the books she had been reading, all the soul-searching she had been doing, especially since Gommie left. She walked by him and into her living room, plopping onto her pink couch and grabbed a pillow, hugging it to her chest, scowling angrily into the empty fireplace. She heard him move behind her and glanced down at his hand lightly resting over her shoulder. It was his left one. He had taken off the ring.

That was something.

He leaned down, his temple resting to hers. “You lost a lot of weight,” he said, quiet.

“I went vegan, I told you.”

“I just want to make sure you are okay.”

Code for he wanted to make sure she wasn’t getting sick again or that nothing had happened to her. She smiled, although she tried not to. She forced herself to keep frowning, although it was hard now, with him dancing his fingertips along her shoulder. “Like you care.”

“I do.”

He rolled over the top of her couch, coming to a soft thud beside her, legs flailing over. The heavy movement of him jostled her and she fell sideways, a giggle escaping before hse could catch herself. She pushed him. “Stop! You are such an arsehole!”

“You like it, admit it.”

“You look like you got hold of clippers for the first time in your life.”

“Maybe I did.” He ran his hand over his head again, shrugging. “It’s just hair, it will grow back.”

In spite of herself, in spite of all the lessons she had learned in therapy, all the books she read, and all the long talks with her mother and Gommie and Lola and even Rich out in L.A., every single one of them telling her not to keep falling into these silly circles with him, she found herself slinging her leg over his thighs, pushing him back into the couch cushions, her hand going to either side of his head. His hands immediately went to her hips, sliding down to cup at her rear, grinding her against him. 

She moaned softly, eyes fluttering shut, feeling him against her, the thick layers of denim doing nothing to hide how much he really missed her. If she had been wearing her workout pants, no doubt he’d know her feelings too. She dropped her hands from the couch to his shoulders, digging her nails in for purchase, bunching up the thin material of his t-shirt. They glanced at each other once more, before suddenly their mouths met in a swift, feverish kiss, teeth and tongues grappling. They fumbled, her fingers now slipping down to pull at the garment, to get it over his head while he went straight for the button of her jeans. 

They laughed, a tangle of arms and fabric, until both tops were cast aside, and her hands were cupping his face, her thumbs brushing over his beard. “I missed you so much,” she murmured, staring into his dark eyes, watching his pupils dilate. She never said the one word, the one word that they were terrified to say, even after all these years of back and forth. 

“I missed you too,” he whispered. He pulled her head back down, his lips soft on hers. They fell to the side, his much heavier body covering hers. It was so weird, she thought, iggling, her hands splaying out over his taut shoulder muscles. “What?” he asked, kissing along her jaw to her neck, a hand sliding down over her thigh, lifting it up to hook around his hip. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re just so…bulky.”

“What about you? All bony.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to make a snide comment about how she thought he liked bony girls, but she wisely kept her mouth closed. She forced a smile, nuzzling his nose. “Petite.”

“You are petite. I could put you in my pocket.”

“Well there is little room, what with this.” She reached to cup him, squeezing lightly around the denim, laughing at the long groan he released. 

They kissed again, her legs kicking off her jeans as he helped her and soon he was making his way down her chest and she was thankful she had ignored putting on a bra. Her fingers reached to grab for his hair, as he brushed his lips over her through the thin silk of her panties, but…there was nothing to grab. Her eyes sprang open, staring at the ceiling, and she groaned, another laugh choking in her throat, mixed with a sob as he licked at her, rolling his eyes up. “What?”

She groaned, arching her hips back up to his mouth. “Fuck you Kit, shaving off all your hair.”

“Wel,” he huffed. “Excuse me…”

“What am I supposed to grab now?”

He blinked, staring up at her. A hand splayed over her belly tightened. “Ah…I didn’t think of that.”

“Clearly.” 

They exchanged another look, before snorting and giggling at the absurdity. She reached for him, pulling him back up to kiss her. “It will grow back,” he advised.

“Just long enough I hope.”

He made a face, but kissed her anyway. After a few minutes, Emilia broke away, feeling a rather odd sensation sweep over her. She frowned, glancing sideways. Kit followed her eyesight. “What?” he murmured. “What are we looking for?”

She lifted herself a bit, so she could peer over the coffee table and sure enough, there they were. Ted and Dany, both of htem staring intently at them, doggie eyes wide and watching. She snorted again, unable to contain herself, a fit of giggles overtaking her, and soon he was joining in, before grabbing her hand and tugging her to her feet, marching right by the dogs to the stairs. “Stay,” he ordered them.

Halfway up the stairs, she heard Ted scurrying, nails clicking as he followed. “He doesn’t know that word.”

“Well does he know what door shut means?”

“He will now,” she laughed, as he closed the door, grabbing hold of her and swinging her to the bed.


End file.
